Reminds me a little of Yeongam’s twisty second half, but with tarmac runoff instead of grass. Certainly doesn’t look like anything worth getting excited about, but hey, two of this year’s best races happened at Bahrain and Hungary…

Seems like a copy & paste job from previous years, with a few tweaks. Find the games pretty dull to be honest by contrast to the standards set by others with much more depth, admittedly codemasters are slightly held back by the licensing I think.

Do you mean “next gen F1 2015″? With next gen they will be able to have far more horsepower to compute the behaviour of the cars more accurately. The main thing I dislike about the current games is the arcade-y handling.

Consoles are always called next-gen until their release. Xbox 360 and PS3 also were next-gen at some point ;)

I do indeed mean the “new” consoles. My X1 is crying for a good racing game. Forza looks and drives amazing but there’s zero motivation. I really, really hope they get F1 2015 up to 60fps but I fear that they concentrate on other gimmicks and we’ll get a sub-720p, 30fps game that looks nice in screenshots. I still play F1 2013 every day (and sometimes 10/11/12) but I’ll skip the 2014 version or get it on steam after some mods have surfaced.

About the licensing limits: I do remember the 1994 season “Pole Position” F1 manager that came with an official FIA licensing and you could cheat with illegal fuel/traction control and hope the officials don’t notice. Awesome game!

The main thing I dislike about the current games is the arcade-y handling.

Completely agree. And it’s not just driving. The whole game is setup as if I’m inserting a coin in the arcade and playing on game. The depth of game menus and customization of Geoff Crammond’s GP series was unparalleled. Plus community was great and there were some insanely good looking and accurate historic cars made by the community members.

What a pathetic video. I cannot express enough my dislike for the videogame videos that change the camera every 1-2 seconds. What on earth can be gained by a vid like that except strengthening my resolve never to buy their game as payback for the minute of misery they caused me? Rant over

Well, that was some useless video.
It doesn’t have anything.
1. It looks like crap graphic-vise and artistically (talking about directing).
2. I have no clue how the track goes, so it doesn’t reveal anything either. Again, due to pathetic camera work. Why don’t they just give an onboard shot for these kind of videos so that we can see the track properly. That’s what everyone’s interested in after all. I couldn’t care less about a game that’s been absolutely stagnating since its first iteration, which itself was a big disappointment to begin with.

Now, I’m not saying this is the worst circuit F1 has ever attended, but surely it stands out as one of the dullest.

Sure, we’ve yet to see a race, but just looking at it, every single bit of the track looks exactly the same. Someone above said “Valencia 2.0″… I’d say Valencia 0.7 ! at least Valencia was fast and tight and you could see a corner and more or less distinguish it from the rest of the track (the bridge for instance).

This one looks like WIP. A totally uninteresting place to race, and just a excuse to continue using the Olympic Park.

F1 tracks should be made out of challenging corners, with a purpose at least. This one just fills a gap within a park… Not blaming Tilke (this time), nor the promoters, that probably got a good deal with Russia (if Russia wants to pay…), nor Russia, they probably need to use that place. But they could’ve chosen a better way, F1 is never going to stick if the track is this dull.

It’s just SAD to see this happen, knowing FULL WELL that in 2, maybe 3 years, F1 will not return and that place is just going to be forgotten forever.

All the great tracks have TREES! this track has no trees, it looks so barren, like all these tilke tracks. also n undulations, you need undulations like Eau Rouge. this track “looks” dreadful, and will be rubbish to watch on tv. F1 should come to Bathurst in Australia. I was happy to hear Russia got a race track, but this is going to be just more monotonous modern f1 rubbish. F1 is shooting itself in the foot, the need to fire Tilke, why does one man have a monopoly of planning the f1 future, it is not right.

Silverstone doesn’t have trees. I fail to see how the exclusion of something which for obvious reasons has to be outside the track parameters should impact on the track itself. I want to watch the cars go round on the track, not point and stare at the pretty scenery (which is the same problem I had with the proposed New Jersey track).

No you’re absolutely right. Take Montreal, the track is already very good but is made an awesome spectacle because of its surroundings. It’s the same story with Monaco. Unless the track is exceptional, such as Silverstone, and manages to capture the imagination of the fans with its unique quirks (which, by the way, this absolutely does not with its 90 degree corner obsession) a track in the middle of nowhere is just about the dullest possible spectacle anyone in F1 could dream up.

Take Bahrain, the last 2 races there have been big hitters. 2013’s race was voted best of the season in the ‘Rate the Race’ features. Abu Dhabi held a great race in 2012, as did Valencia. The surroundings of a circuit do not add nor take away from the quality of the racing on the track.

As for this track, I’d rather wait until it’s had a race before I start criticising it.

But Bahrain would indeed be thought of as a more interesting circuit if it had more interesting surroundings. There’s nothing to say a visually dull circuit won’t produce good racing- but it will still be a visually dull backdrop, and that matters to an awful lot of people. At least the desert setting gives Bahrain a somewhat unique quality, although being held at night then loses that. You may well have pointed out some great races- but you have missed that all those circuits are still disliked in spite of that thanks to both layout and appearance. Also, for those occasions when a race is dull, if not even the setting can liven it up then you are in for one of the most boring races. But if there is some beauty or interest it is easier to take pleasure in simply watching the cars.

Bathurst would be awesome but will never happen. Could you imagine a big accident up the hill? It would be quite difficult to clear. They would have to change the track that much in the name of ‘safety’ that it would lose all its character.
This track (Sochi) I agree looks absolutely boring. I am hoping we don’t have to sit through to many races there

If the EU and the US actually prohibit the Russian GP, what would happen? All the teams are based within the EU (Most in UK, Ferrari and Toro Rosso in Italy). So presumably they’d be forced to reconsider. This would therefore affect all the drivers (even ones like Massa, Gutierrez and Maldonado, as they won’t be able to race without the teams there to give the cars). I know that people will say that the contract stipulates that they have to be there for all the rounds, but does that include racing, and what happens if the EU and US step in big time to sanction or prohibit the race?

Sauber are based in Switzerland, not in the EU. Imagine if all the EU teams boycotted it and Sauber replaced Sutil with a non-EU driver for one race and went there as the sole team to collect 43 points, that would be hilarious, but of course it’s not going to happen. Also Caterham and Marussia are based in the UK but registered as Malaysian and Russian respectively, I wonder if that would make any difference in this theoretical scenario.